


When I look Into Your Eyes I See The Galaxy

by BubblyBarry



Category: CrankGameplays - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF, markiplier - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Outer Space, crankiplier - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2020-02-08 18:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18628759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubblyBarry/pseuds/BubblyBarry
Summary: Ethan Nestor ☆ 22 ☆ home planet is unknown ☆ he's been living on the moon for his entire life ☆ he doesn't know how he got there ☆ he doesn't know when he got there ☆ he doesn't know how to leave.Mark Fischbach ◇ 27 ◇ home planet is earth ◇ he's been living there his entire life ◇ he doesn't know what he's doing there ◇ he doesn't no what he's going to do there ◇ he doesn't know much of anything.☆☆☆When Ethan stumbles upon a satellite that unknowingly throws him off of the small grey rock he calls home, and lands in the backyard of the lost-in-life Mark, Ethan is scattered in a series of events that causes him to have to learn how to act and be human, as if he wasn't a moon child for his entire existence. With Ethan trying to learn how to function in day to day society from Mark, who can't keep a job and has way to much on his plate, who knows who is really teaching the other about life."When I Look Into Your Eyes I See The Galaxy" is a trip that sends you to love, loss, exploration, and self discovery, following the very different - yet very similar journeys of two men who happen to cross paths.





	1. Chapter 1

## Chapter One, Everyday.

### (Ethan's POV)

I have had almost the same day everyday for as long as I can remember. I wake up in the morning, and watch the earth turn around from my window. I think it's called Earth, that's the technical term. That's what they call it on the television box that sits in the middle of my room, and I'm pretty sure I had read a book about it once or twice. After I look at Earth, I get out of my bed. Sometimes I watch the television box, sometimes I go outside. The only places here are inside and outside so there isn't anywhere else I could go. If I see darkness on the ground, don't often go outside as it is really cold when it's dark.

When I am inside, I am either watching the television box or I am reading books I have already read a million times. I didn't normally stay in bed long, I couldn't. I needed to go outside and make sure Earth was ok. It was very rare that anything happened to it, I think out of the entire time I had been doing this, I only had to differ one rock that was flying towards Earth. The book I read about my purpose here said those rocks were called meteors or unidentified flying objects. I hadn't seen anything out of the originary for a long time though, the only thing that surrounded Earth was stars and these metal crafts that I think were called satellites, but I wasn't 100% sure that was the right name.

This day, I awoke from my sleep, got out of my bed and went outside right away. I had already watched all of the things on the Television box before I went to sleep, and there was no darkness so there was no reason for me not to go outside. It walked out the metal door that separated the inside from out, and stepped onto the ground. I loved the view from here, regardless of how many times I had seen it. Earth really did look pretty. Apparently people lived there, lots of them, and that's why I had to make sure I protected it. I stared off at the huge sphere, the blue and green shades mixing with white masses that moved around the surface.

I wondered how so many people could be there, I never saw any of them. I wondered, if I couldn't see them, could they see me? I wondered it they really looked like how they did on the television box screen. I sat down on the ground, dust flying upwards from the impact. I took a deep breath, and exhaled. I was in a good mood today, and with positive energy came the stars. A few of them pulled from above me and found a new orbit around my head. They were always so sparkly, and bright. I often tried to touch them to see what they felt like, to see if they felt as bright and pretty as they looked, but my hand went right through them without any feeling on my palm or finger tips. It was almost like they were transparent, but they didn't look it. So I stopped trying to feel them, and just let them circle around me when I was in a good mood.

Other stars came to me when I was mad, but that only happened once. They were red in colour, and they burned when I tried to touch them. I could feel them, but my mood quickly switched to surprised and confused, so they went away very quickly as soon as my emotions shifted. I tried to make myself mad again, but trying to fake my angry didn't make those stars appear, and I hadn't been truly mad in a really long time. I had nothing to be mad about, my life was fine. I had no obstacles, and I knew my purpose.

It was to protect Earth, and I had side objectives to maneuver the stars, explore the outside, and read and watch the television box. I think there was something else I was supposed to be doing that I did a long time ago, but, I had stopped doing it so long I couldn't remember what it was now.

Nothing happened to Earth, and I played with the stars. I ran around outside for a bit and played with the rocks on the ground, and I moved some stars around in the sky making different shapes with them. Then I went back inside and I read some more books. Ones I had already read, but they were the only ones I had. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "A Series of Unfortunate Events" were my favourites. I liked how Alice was so curious, and found all of these weird things like cats and rabbits. I wondered if these were things that existed on Earth like the people I couldn't see. I always wondered what happened to those children and their unfortunate events, it seemed like the book was supposed to continue, however there was no number two here.

When I was done reading, I felt tired again. So I went to sleep in my bed, curling up in my blanket and resting my head on my pillow. I would sleep for a while, and then wake up, and do the same thing again. Maybe I would stay inside longer when I awoke, maybe I would take a walk around outside. Maybe I would protect Earth more. I wasn't entirely sure, but one thing was for sure, I would continue to do what I was put here to do as detailed from the book I read every now and then. It said, Ethan Nestor. Subject # 109. Relocated to the moon. Purpose: protect Earth from Dangerous Matter. And then it continued to detail out how I would achieve this purpose. This is what I have been doing for as long as I could remember, and this is exactly what I would keep doing for as long as I could. Everyday.

 

***

### (Mark's POV)

"Amy, this is all a bit much don't you think?" I asked as I stared at the divorce papers that had been slid across the lawyers desk to my hands. Amy sat on the other side of the desk, arms crossed, with her lawyer - a mid aged lady with pin straight black hair named Grace Donenwirth who also looked like someone has said something to her that insulted her personally even when no one was looking at her - who was tapping her nails against the wooden surface.

"Amy is not asking for anything unreasonable here, Mr. Fischbach." she said. I had a theory she called me by my last name just to make me more annoyed. To her I wasn't Mark, to her I was just someone who took advantage of her client and she wanted to help Amy get as much as she could out of this situation when it should have been the other way around.

"If I agree to this then I will be homeless in a month." I said, Amy snickered and rolled her eyes as Grace shook her head.

"Well Mr. Fischbach, you should have thought of this before." Grace spoke. Before? Before what? Before my wife of 3 months had decided to cheat on me with a man named Tyler who had more money then I did and a boat? I was being punished for something I was not responsible for, all because Amy's new trophy boyfriend was swimming in cash and I was barely able to buy enough food to keep me alive for the week.

"Do you even need all of this money? You already took the house and the car." I complained, Amy groaned and shook her head and Grace gasped loudly. Way to loudly. She always acted like I had killed someone when I spoke.

"After all you put this poor women through, she is being generous." Grace said. What a joke, this was all a joke. Amy was playing the victim so she could get everything she could out of me before removing my last name from her name and getting Tyler's instead. That's why she choose this lawyer, Grace, because Grace only ever represented women and she seemed to hate men, men that weren't rich anyways. This was all ridiculous, if I wasn't just barely scraping by I would have already given her the money she wanted so I could just move on with my life, but I needed to make sure I had enough money to keep a roof over my head.

"Well, I can't just give you this right now." I stated, it was true, the amount was too much, I didn't even have that total in my bank account at the moment. Payday was this Friday but, that was besides the point. Grace folded her hands and leaned back in her chair, looking at her watch and then back at me.

"We will discuss payment plans in our next session. Goodbye Mr. Fischbach." Grace said as she stood up and Amy stood up with her. They both walked over to the office door and Grace held it open, gesturing for me to leave. I grabbed my backpack and pushed out my chair roughly, proceeding to exit the room, not making eye contact with either women. I thought I heard Amy say something to be but I blocked it out and just continued walking. I didn't want to hear anything else and I was going to be late for work if I stayed here any longer and I could not afford to lose my job right now. I quickly hurried out of the lawyers office and pulled out my phone to check the time. The bus would be at the stop any minute. I began to run towards the bus stop, trying desperately to make it. Luckily for me, I did managed to get to the stop just as the bus pulled up beside the sign. I couldn't even speak to the driver because of how hard I was huffing and puffing. I scanned my bus pass and found a seat. I slouched into it and tried to catch my breath, it took a long time before I did.

I have had the same day for as long as I could remember. I went to go an argue with Grace and Amy for money neither of them deserved, then I ran to catch my bus so I could go to my office job for data entry and look at a computer screen all day while people tried to small talk with me and I had to pretend like I wasn't struggling to make a living. Pretend like my soon to be ex wife wasn't ruining my entire life because she fell in love with another guys bank account. Pretend like I didn't hate absolutely everything in this world. Pretend like I actually knew what my future looked like and wasn't just living day by day like this. Sometimes I did like pretending though, because I had gotten so good at it, after a while I think even I started believing my false statements.

I got to work and I saw down at my desk. I loaded up my computer and began inputting data into spreadsheets. Excel seemed to be one of the only people who understood me at work, and maybe even outside of work. I had one best friend, his name was Jack, but he had been distance with me the past few months because he was working on his career and would constantly tell me I needed to find help somewhere with everything I was going through and when I didn't listen to him, it would start a fight. I didn't like fighting with Jack as he was probably the only one who understood me right now.

One of the people I worked with, Shane, tried to talk to me about Chuck E. Cheese conspiracy theories and I only half listened to him. My mind was elsewhere, and I couldn't risk putting a toe out of line as I needed to make sure I didn't get fired, or the depletion of my bank account would just accelerate and I would be homeless faster and starve faster. I filled out my spreadsheets, filled my paperwork, emailed my boss, and then clocked out at 8pm. I took the bus home, sitting alone with only the quiet bus driver who navigated me through the busy streets of LA, all the way to my street on Sepulveda Boulevard. The bus driver dropped me off at the stop at the beginning of my street and then drove away in the distance, to pick up more people who were heading home as well. I liked to imagine other people's lives just because it helped me escape from the lunatic show mine was right now.

I walked down the street, it was small, and the houses were so close together. The house me and Amy lived in before when we didn't hate each other was huge. It had a beautiful living room and a kitchen with an island, out bedroom had a walk in closet and an en-suite bathroom and a office right beside it even though neither of us really had any use for it. the backyard was big and wonderful, Chica, my dog, loved playing in it, and me and Amy planned to have kids who would love playing out there.

But now it was all different. Chica had about 3 feet of grass to peed on and barely much more room on the inside of my condo. There was only 2 bedrooms, and one was being used as a glorified storage unit. It had one bathroom with a standing shower and a kitchen that was about the same size as our closet we had in the old house. Amy hadn't see where I was living right now and part of me wanted her to see if just so she could take a glimpse of what I could barely afford compared to her with all the money she was taking from me, but I knew if she saw how small my house was she would probably laugh at how pitiful I was and then try to take Chica with her instead, claiming I didn't have a healthy living environment for the golden retriever apparently 'we bought together' when I had Chica before I even met Amy.

Part of me thought this was all my fault, I only dated Amy for 4 months and then popped the question. I barely knew her then, and I only started to know the real her after 3 months of that ring being on her finger. At first she would just come home after work late with messy hair, next she would be gone all night. Then she would get the text messages and then we would have fights about trust and secrets. Then I caught her red handed, sending nude pictures to this guy she had met on some dating app named Tyler. This was it for her. She started freaking out, verbally abusing me everyday, saying things I would never repeat even to myself in my head. Day in day out until she filed for divorce and confirmed she was going to marry Tyler as soon as she got what she deserved from me.

I would admit it, yes, I did cater to her arguments, but I never laid a finger on her in a bad way, and not even at all those last few weeks when we were arguing all the time, and yes I did scream at her once to stop acting how she was because I couldn't take it anymore. However, I never once did anything bad to her, and if I was yelling, it was in defense of my mental state. Now here she was, suing me for all that I had because she fell out of love with me. Something I had no control over, and here I am, lost in my life, living cheque to cheque, trying to see if I can make it to next week without having an emotional meltdown. When I walked into my small house and was greeted by Chica, I put my bag on the ground and sunk to the floor myself. That was my life, day in, day out. This is what I have been doing for as long as I could remember, and this is exactly what I would keep doing for as long as I could. Everyday.

 

 

* * *

* * *

 

#### A/N Hello friends ! Welcome to my latest book, the premise is a bit interesting/different then I guess most of my writing but I like it. I have wanted to write a more Sci-Fi space type thing for a while now and I think Ethan the Moon child is a good idea. Other notes I guess is I apologize to Amy in advance, I don't actually think of her as I am writing her in this book, just an FYI. Absolutely no hate to her at all! Just want to get that out here, she is not going to be redeemed as the book goes on.

 

#### Anyways, my real reason for this note was to just welcome everyone to my latest random ass fic and thank you for reading! I am glad to have you here and I hope you enjoy this book! It's my first Crankiplier fanfic which is cool beans too! I originally posted this on wattpad, but the last thing I ever put on this site was a 5sos fic I don't wanna talk about so this is my redemption? (Talk about a shitty redemption)  
Anyways~  
Talk to you all later~


	2. Chapter 2

## Chapter Two, Apollo 109

### (Ethan's POV)

I was inside for a long time when I awoke. It wasn’t because it was dark out, and it wasn’t because I was tired. I was honestly, just a little bored. I could have went outside, explored and checked on Earth but sitting on the floor building towers with my books and videos seemed a lot more entertaining at the moment. The stars that sometimes called my positive mood their orbit found there way inside and kept me company as I built. I tried to recreate something I had seen in one of videos on the television box. Buildings tall and strong, with a bridge standing between two islands. Once it was built, I looked down at it in happiness.

I sent my foot flying into the books, knocking down a building. I laughed as I did this, turning to the one that was being held up by video cases and the tapes that were inside. _Oh no! Its Godzilla!_ I shouted inside my head, or possibly out loud. I hit that one with my palm, sending them crashing to the ground. Then I kicked the bridge I had made from pieces of paper I rolled up and other boxes I found inside. It fell over but not before my foot could get snagged on a heavier box that caused me to fall over. I tumbled onto my stomach and hands, missing the floor with my face by a centimeter. I took a deep breath and laughed, trying to turn myself over in order to stand up and rebuild my city so I can smash it again like that big monster from the video titled with his name.

When I went to go and build the bridge again, my hand stopped on the heavy box. I moved it slightly, but it didn’t go very far. I didn’t remember where I got this box from, and it looked like it was still sealed shut. It was unlikely I wouldn’t have opened something up until this point, I had been here for my entire life, I had read every book and I have watched every video on the television box and I went into every room inside and every place outside. How was it that I had never opened this box. I paused everything else I was doing - not that it was anything important - and I moved the heavy box out of it’s spot on the ground. I looked down at it and examined the exterior. I slid my hand down the taped up top, getting to the end of it and scratching it with my fingernail. I got under the tape, and I pulled at it, ripping it off of the box, causing the top to open, and dust to fly up from the motion. I coughed at the dust, and wiped it away, looking into the box.

A book lay flat on top of a metal rectangle that had many bolts and buttons on it. I examined the box, and pulled the book out. The cover looked faded, but I could still read the black font that was printed on it. It read ‘Apollo 109 Return’. It didn’t make much sense to me. I flipped it open, skimming the pages, trying to pick out key words so I knew the basics of what the papers were telling me. _‘If you are reading this, then that means the satellite for the Apollo 109 Return Program is now in orbit, and if you have gotten instructions from Apollo 109 team to return to base for further inspection. If you have not received communication, please do not proceed with the program. Estimated length: 100 years.’_ is what the first page said. I didn’t understand a lot of it, it made little to no sense to me. Apollo 109? 109 was my subject number, but I didn’t know what Apollo was, and return program? Where was I returning too? I had been here for my whole life, in order to return somewhere, I would have had to have been there in the past. This is the only place I had ever been. Inside or outside, and that's it.

I also didn’t understand the 100 years statement. How long was a year? Was it a physical measurement? Or was it time period? I think I had heard it before in a book or two, but I didn’t know what it was really. I believed it was a measurement of time, but, there was no way for me to tell time here. A day was when the sun set, but the sun was always there, I could see it when I looked at Earth. It never set, or moved. So, how was I supposed to know how long a day way? Or an hour? Or a minute? These were all just words to me, meaningless words. Just like year, and Apollo, and return program. I knew a lot of things, but I didn’t know everything. I think I knew everything I could know, but I wanted to know more. I still had tons of questions about life in general, ones I didn’t think I would get answers to here. Were some in this book? I wasn’t sure.

I placed the book down beside me and examined the metal cube that was underneath. It had a screen on it, that had numbers, the smaller ones on the right hand side kept moving upwards, and then the ones beside it moved up once the smaller ones got to 60. The numbers kept getting bigger in size, but smaller in amount as I looked across to the left side of the screen. Until the biggest sized number, which had a value of 22. There were words beside the numbers as well, almost too small for me to read, but I just barely managed. The 22 said year(s) beside it. The next number said Day(s) and then the next one said Hour(s) and then Minuet(s) and lastly Second(s).  
I still didn’t really understand these numbers, or how time was measured really. But this looked like a clock to me. Alice ran into lots of them while she was in Wonderland, but I had never seen one until now. However, I was lead to believe this wasn’t just something that told me time time. I looked through the booklet again, trying to find more information, but each page just made me more and more confused. Words I didn’t truly understand filled my head, mixed with phrases and information that just caused more questions to arise in my head.

Then I got to a page near the end of the book, it was spaced out differently than the others. The words simple said ‘to initiate Return Program, press the Orange button on the right hand side of the Return Module, located inside the box with this book.’ is what it read. I wasn’t sure what the Return Program was, nor was I sure I should have been touching anything within this mysterious box, but something inside my head told me to push that button. I located the button on the side of the box, and I ran my finger tips over it. I was hesitant to push it, because if what I was piecing together from this book was true, I wasn’t supposed to initiate this until the years panel said 100, but it was only at 22, so there was a very long gap between the two numbers, and I for one didn’t want to wait that long.

I took a deep breath, and pushed down the orange button. A loud beeping noises started emitting from the box as it began to shake. I stepped away from it now, worried about what it was going to do. An antenna came out of a small compartment on the top and then seemed to scan the room, and then signal for something to find me. I sat there very still, worry clouding my mind now. This was a stupid idea, I instantly regretted it.

All of a sudden, the walls around me started to shake, and enclose. The floor underneath me rose up, and detached from the rest of the floor. The walls detached as well, and pushed together enclosing me in a small cube. I tried to get out but by the time I started realizing what was happening, the spaces between the walls were too close for me to get out without them snapping me in half. The walls closed in and I was in a completely black cube, the only light was a red one, blinking, coming from the box with the button on it. And the clock, I could still see the numbers. They all reset to 0. The cube shook, and I tried to grab onto something, but the interior was made out of nothing but slick metal.

It began to move, extremely fast. I couldn't see where I was going. The cube moved down quickly and I hit my head off of the top, and when I hit the bottom of it, I couldn't move, and everything went black.

### (Mark's POV)

There was water on my lap, but, I didn’t want to believe where it was coming from. I wasn't crying, no, I couldn't be. Because it I was crying it was kind of like Amy won this whole thing. She had taken everything I had, including my dignity. I didn't want to be crying. I took another swig of the beer I was drinking.

This was my life now, I was sitting in my tiny kitchen, on the floor, facing my back door, looking at the sky, wishing that something different would have happened those months ago. I wish I wasn’t so bad to Amy, as much as I wanted to believe this was her fault, I think she was convincing even me that this was all my fault. Chica was sleeping on the couch, her nose under a few articles of clothing that I had been too lazy to put away. I drank again, and stared outside.

I wish I was good enough for Amy, I wish I could have made her happy. All of this stuff, I wish I could go back and fix whatever I did to make her not love me anymore. I looked up at the sky, stars dotted the night like a cluster of sparkles that spilled on the floor after a child had clumsily knocked them over. I stared off into the sky, letting my thoughts run into dark places, drinking my beer trying to make them go away, and finally I did admit I was crying. I was crying so much.

Suddenly, I saw something else in the sky, it was bright and moved with a long stream of sparkles behind it. It wasn’t a plane, it was something else. A shooting star. I stopped my mindless wishing, for things I didn’t really want, and when I saw that star I made a wish for something I actually wanted to obtain. I wanted to be happy, truly happy, everyday. Everyday. The star disappeared into the night, and I continued to sit on my floor, drinking my thoughts away.

#### ***

I awoke in the same spot on the floor, it felt like hours later but when I looked over at the clock on my microwave, it had only been a few minutes since I had fallen asleep. Something did wake me up, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I rubbed my eyes and looked around, trying to pinpoint the cause of my awakening. I looked around, but nothing caught my attention. I took a breath and decided to pass this off as a coincidence, and convinced myself I just woke up randomly. I started to shut my eyes again, not wanting to get up and move to go to my bed. Once I shut my eyes, I heard the noise that had woken me up. It was a rustle coming from my small backyard. I had a tree that reached over from the neighbor behind my house, and a small bush in the back corner of my yard. I didn’t know which one was rustling, but this was the noise that woke me.

I jumped to my feet, facing the clear back door. I looked around to see if the rustling was coming from the bush or the tree. I heard it again, and noticed a few leafs fall from the tree above my fence. I focused on the trees branches, and could vaguely see a figure inside of it. I ran off into my hallway, opened my closet and grabbed my baseball bat out of it. I ran back over to the back door and slid it open quietly. I stepped out on the grass, my socks getting damp from the rain that saturated the ground outside. I tried to be quiet so I didn't startle whatever was in the tree. I stepped closer to it and heard it rustle again. When I stepped almost right underneath the branches, the dark figure fell out of the tree and hit the grass below with a big BANG. I stepped back, and noticed the figure had started to glow when it hit the ground.

It was radiating blue and purple light, and what I could only describe as stars were circling around it, shining. I held the bat tight in my hands and took deep breaths. What was this thing? I had forgotten my glasses inside, so I had to talk a bit closer to focus on whatever just fell out of that tree above my backyard. I focused on it, and it became to become clearer to me.

It looked like a guy, a few years younger then me, blue sparkly hair, and covered in little, shiny stars. He was wearing a T-shirt and grey jogging pants, but they looked very old. I put the bat down and knelt down beside the guy, looking at him in the most confused way I had looked at anything. What was he? I heard him cough, and I stepped back timidly. He moved his face, looking at me, his eyes opening up. They were so bright, and full of stars, shades of purple, blue and black. His face was cut up, but his blood was the same colour as his eyes and just as sparkly.

“...Help me… Please…

Please….”


	3. Chapter 3, Ethan

##  Chapter 3, Ethan 

### (Mark's POV) 

“Help me please…” he coughed out, his eyes opening and closing, he was trying so hard to stay awake.

“What? Are you ok? Where did you come from? Why were you in that tree? Why-” 

“Please just help me…” he cut me off with a loud cough, the sparkly blood splashing from his mouth. I didn't know what to do. He looked like your normal guy, but he was sparkling and full of stars. I didn’t know where he came from, he just fell from the sky.

“Please…” he said again, I didn’t have much time to think about this, he was clearly hurt. I made a split second decision and scooped him off of the ground, lifting him up and walking him over to my house. I didn’t have a car, and I couldn't afford to call an ambulance, so when I got into my house again, I grabbed my phone and dialled Jack’s number.

“Hello? Jesus Mark what time is it?” Jack said in a raspy voice, I knew I had woken him up.

“Listen, it doesn’t matter I need you to drive me to the hospital.” I said, Jack's tone changed after this.

“Are you ok?!” he shouted, I sighed.

“Yeah, I'm fine. I'll explain when you get here come quick. I'm at home.” I said, Jack said ok and that he would be here soon and then hung up. I took the guy in my arms over to my front door, I got outside, shut it behind me and locked it, waiting on my steps for Jack. I kept an eye on the guy, his eyes were completely shut now, but he was still breathing. Jack zoomed in front of the curb a few minutes later and I got up and headed over to the car. Jack leaned over the passenger seat to open the door for me and when he saw the boy in my arms his eyes widened.

“What the fu-”

“Quickly, he’s hurt. He needs a hospital. He - he fell out of my neighbor's tree.” I tried to explain the situation the best I could, but I barely knew what to make of it. Jack looked at me like I was crazy and I nudged him and told him to focus on the road. He sped to the hospital, but no one else was on the road at this time, it was well past 2am. Everytime we went over a bump, the boy in my arms would cough, and the sparkly liquid would drip from his mouth and nose. I thought I was going crazy every time I saw this. We soon approached the hospital and I carried him inside the emergency room, instantly receptionists came over to me and the injured stranger I was holding. As soon as one of the receptionists came over to me to examine the boy, along with a nurse, his eyes opened. He looked at the nurse and suddenly the sparkles that covered the liquid and the stars that had been attached to his clothing went away. The liquid turned into normal, dark red blood and the stars just disappeared. 

“What happened?” the one receptionist asked me, her face was flushed when she saw the boy. I took a deep breath and tried to make sense of the situation so I could relay the info to the receptionist and nurse that accompanied her.

“Umm, I don’t know him. My name is Mark Fischbach. I heard a noise in my backyard, and when I went to investigate, he fell out of the tree that hangs over my fence. He is all scratched up and hurt, he asked me to help him. I know that sounds crazy but, I wish I had a better answer for you.” I explained, the receptionist gave me a weird look but then the guy coughed and our attention returned to him. 

“What's your name?” the nurse asked, he looked at her and focused on his her face, then looked down to her name tag and her medical card. He then scanned the room, speaking slowly.

“Apollo… umm…” he mumbled some numbers after, and then I saw his eyes land on a police officer. He stopped talking and looking around the room, and directed his attention back to the nurse.

“Ethan. It’s Ethan.” he spoke softly, but this time more clear then the other words he had said before. The receptionist nodded to him and then moved out of the way and helped the nurse take him out of my arms and carry him off onto a stretcher, and then to the back of the hospital.

“We'll get him a room, but, you'll have to wait here, to answer more questions, and since you don't know him, we can't let you in until he's stable enough to verbally allow you to be in the room ” the receptionist spoke, I agreed and watched them take the mysterious boy, Ethan, through the emergency doors. I didn’t know what to do after that, I was breathing heavily and hadn't noticed until the room got quiet. I sat in the waiting area with Jack for a bit, and then the clock turned to about 3:15am. Jack yawned and rubbed his eyes. I turned to him and patted his shoulder.

“Oh, you should get out of here, you have work at 9am don’t you?” I asked, Jack nodded and shrugged to me.

“Yeah, well so do you.” Jack informed me. I rolled my eyes and patted his back, with a bit more force this time.

“No really, get out of here. Go home and sleep. Thank you so much for driving me here but it's really late and I don’t know how long I'll be.” I told him. Jack thought but only for a moment, I knew he wasn’t about to argue with me when sleep was involved. 

“How will you get home?” he asked, I folded my arms and leaned forward, looking at him with a half smile.

“No worries, I'll figure it out. If anything, I'll call you.” I said. Jack then agreed with me, standing up out of his chair and beginning to get his car keys out.

“Keep me posted. I hope he's ok.” Jack said, I nodded and looked at the ground, the image of the weird sparkling blood stuck in my mind.

“Yeah. Me too.” 

I think I did end up falling asleep in the waiting room chairs, but it was a very light sleep. The way the cushion - if you could even call it that - rested against my back made me feel a bit sick to my stomach actually, and the arms were made of this wood that had been around for way too long and was most likely leaving splinters in my arms. It got cold in the room when the door would open and then hot when someone would start coughing. So, whatever kind of sleep I did have there was not a sleep I would have liked to have again. What permanently woke me from my half slumber was a nurse, she approached me and I could see her out of the corner of my eye. I yawned loudly and sat up, awaiting what she had to say.

“Umm, Mark was it?” she asked, I nodded and slowly became more awake and alert. 

“Ethan, that guy you brought in, he's ok now. Almost fully healed actually which is strange and part of the reason I came out here to talk to you.” she spoke. I gave her a very confused look when she said he was fully healed up. He had multiple gashes and wounds on him when I found him, it was only about 4:30am, how did he heal in the span of 2 hours? 

“Now normally I wouldn’t be able to disclose any medical history to you about him, but that's just the thing too. No matter where we searched for a file on him we couldn't find one. No doctors, no records, medications, nothing. He has no ID on him and he says he doesn’t know any friends or family. Did you see any of his belongings with him when you found him?” the nurse asked. This was all a lot to process. How were there no records of this guy? Even if you are a new born baby you see a doctor, everyone has seen a doctor once in their lifetime. How has he never seen a doctor? Or know who is family or friends are?

“Uh, no. He just fell out of a tree. I grabbed him exactly how I found him, he didn’t have anything but the clothes he was wearing.” I answered. The nurse continued to be puzzled by the situation, and so was I. He leaned forward and shook her head.

“When we hooked him up to the blood pressure machine, or an IV, or anything, the machines glitched out. I had never seen anything like it before. His clothes, as you said, are the only thing he seems to have in his possession and the top hem is stitched with some sort of code, and it has a strange looking NASA logo on the right sleeve.” the nurse said. I leaned back in my chair and ran my hands through my hair, trying to piece things together. I really didn’t have any answers here, and I wished I did. I thought the nurse wished I did too. She took a deep breath and stood up.

“We will have to wait until he is fully better and ask him questions then. Something is not right. In the meantime, he did request for you to go see him. He said you’re ok to come into his room. You said you two don’t know each other, right?” the nurse told me. I shook my head and stood up.

“No, I don’t know him. I probably know as much about him as you do, maybe even less,” I said, following her over to the back area of the hospital and over to Ethan’s room 

“But if he wants to see me, maybe I can get some answers from him.” I told her, she nodded to me and opened the door for Ethan’s room. I walked inside and heard the beeping of a heart monitor. I saw the guy there, laying in the bed, head full of blue, eyes shut, skin pale, with small blemishes dotting his nose and chin area. He was a thinner guy, medium build besides that. His shirt and jogging pants clung loosely to his figure. The machine that was hooked up to his arm was static filled and giving rating that made no sense at all, even I could tell something was wrong with them and I had no experience with the medical field. As soon as I approached his bed, he turned to face me and his eyes opened. 

They looked less sparkly now, I could still see the faint sparkles within their hazel hue, but it was less opaque than before when I first found him. He also had no cuts or gashes, it was like they all magically disappeared. I stood beside him, and looked down at him laying in the bed, the beeping of the heart monitor was the only noise in the room besides our breathing. I didn’t know what to say to him to break said silence, this was all very confusing. 

“Hi, Ethan, right? How are you feeling?” I asked, he just nodded in response and then looked at the nurse behind me. 

“Is it ok if I talk to him alone? Just for a minute?” Ethan asked, I gave him a strange look and then gave the nurse the same look. She put her hands up and nodded, walking out the door. It was quiet in the room again, until she was far away from the entrance. Ethan sat up right after we couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore.

“Mark, right? That was your name? Mark Fischbach?” Ethan asked me, I nodded and he stood up from his bed, looking down at his arm and yanking the IV out. I winced at the sight, he didn’t even flinch. Stars covered his wrist before any blood could come out of the puncture that the IV left. It only took a few seconds for them to disappear and for the cut to disappear with it. 

“What are you?” I asked, he shook his head and wiped the spot on his arm that just magically healed.

“I can explain that later. I need your help, and I know you don’t know me and I don’t know you, but, I don’t know anybody actually and you were the first person to help me. I am hoping your willing to help me again.” He said, he spoke really very quickly, but timidly at the same time. He didn’t make much eye contact with me either. He was right, I didn’t know him, but for some reason, when he asked me for help, I did want to give it to him. 

“Yeah, I can help you. What is it you need help with?” I asked, still confused with the situation. Ethan walked past me and looked at the door, and then examined the room while speaking.

“We need to get out of here. I know you were trying to help me, and you brought me here with good intentions, but I can’t be here. Once the nurses and doctors look into my test results more, they are going to get someone higher up involved, and that will not be good.” Ethan explained to me. His eyes stopped on a window sill above us, it was small and touching the ceiling, I worried he wanted us to climb out of it. 

“Umm… This is a bit crazy. We are going to break out of  the hospital?” I asked, Ethan nodded, his eyes still fixated on the window sill. He mumbled something I didn’t hear and then bit on his finger nail. 

“Yeah, we are going to break out of here… I was thinking the window there but, I don’t think that will work, so I gotta think of a plan B.” Ethan thought out loud. I scratched the back of my head, unsure how to answer Ethan’s statements. I didn’t even know this guy and he was trying to get me to help him break out of a hospital because he didn’t want them to look at his tests results. This was all so insane. Not to mention the fact that he clearly wasn’t normal what with his stars and accelerated healing. I wanted answers, but I felt that I wouldn’t get any until I helped him get out of here, as this seemed to be his main objective right now.

“Maybe we could just leave out the front doors…” he mumbled, I looked at him in a very confused way and he looked at me with less of an expression and more of an alerted ambience. 

“I don’t think that will work, then again, you look like you have some sort of plan.” I mentioned. Ethan didn’t say anything again, just stood there as if he was thinking hard. He walked beside me and reached out his hand to mine, when I didn’t take it he shot me a look.

“Don’t you trust me?” he asked, I shook my head to him and laughed nervously.

“No, I don’t even know you.” I answered, he just rolled his eyes and grabbed my hand, shutting his eyes and focusing.

“Don’t move just yet, I’m not sure if this will work.” he said. I was extremely worried, I didn’t know what he was doing or what he was going to do. The mystery of this boy who fell from the damn sky seemed like it would forever linger in my mind. I wanted answers so bad, that I was willing to help him get out of her regardless of what ideas he had, just to feed my curiosity. He began to sparkle, or so it seemed. Small white stars began to form at his chest, and then they spread around his entire being. Once they got to the hand that was holding mind, the stars crawled up my arm slowly, covering the whole thing and soon my whole body. Me and Ethan were now dotted with bright white stars. Ethan opened his eyes and all of a sudden, when I looked at him, he was gone. Replaced with a very faint outline that I could only see if I was looking for something that was there and had disappeared. 

“What the-” I began, Ethan shushed me and squeezed my hand tighter, when I looked down at our hands, I noticed that nothing was there. I looked at myself and I was completely gone as well, the only thing I could see was a very transparent outline around where my body used to be.

“If you move too much I think it won't work anymore. I have never tried to do this with another person, so just be cautious.” Ethan informed me, I began to breath heavily. I didn’t know what he had done to me, and his unsureness did not make me feel much better about the situation. He started to walk, with me by his side, slowly towards the door. When we got to the door, I went to go and turn the knob but Ethan squeezed my hand. 

“Don’t do anything I don’t tell you to do!” he whisper yelled. I should have just left him here at this point, I thought that any sane person would. This was getting wildly out of proportions and I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to go along for the ride now, regardless of my curiosity. The only thing that kept me attached by the hand to this strange boy was some feeling inside my gut, one that was telling me to stick with him, one that I had not felt before in my life. It was hard to explain, and even harder to understand. 

Ethan reached out and opened the door slowly, pulling me along with him past the frame. We stepped out into the hallway, and he closed the door softly behind us, and then slowly stepped away from it. People past by us, nurses and patience alike, without looking our way. We really were invisible, which was next to impossible. I started breathing a bit harder than I was before, and Ethan just continued to walk with me. We went down the hallway and over to the two swinging doors which we had used to get back to the patience area. 

When we got up to the doors, Ethan let out a sigh of relief. I saw the faint outline of his arm reach for the metal plate that replaced the door handle on doors like this, and as soon as he pushed it slightly, the entire door came flying open, and someone came rushing in. Ethan pushed me over away from the door and the person. I ended up tripping over my feet and falling onto the ground. Ethan did come falling with me, I could vaguely see him tumbling over. When he hit the ground, some white stars bounced off of his legs, and fell to the ground, leaving a bit of his pants visible. Luckily the person who came charging in was too focused on getting to where they needed to go to notice. Ethan gasped slightly and then collected up the stars, covering the visible portions of his legs up again, turning invisible. He slowly stood and I stood with him, our hands still linked. 

“That was close.” Ethan told me, I nodded and then realized he couldn't see me anyways. We tried the door again, this time succeeding in getting it open. We slipped outside the door swiftly, trying not to draw attention to ourselves. Luckily just as we had moved out of the way of the door another doctor came out into the waiting area, so the situation didn't look suspicious. We started towards the exit, slowly maneuvering around people, trying not to trip over anything that could send us to the ground and knock more stars off of either of us. We made it to the door and waited for someone else to open in so we could slip outside. 

As we waited, I noticed the nurse who was helping Ethan before come rushing out the doors, looking up and down. I began to sweat, I knew she was looking for us. Ethan didn't say anything but I could hear his breathing grow quicker the more she moved and looked around. She approached the receptionist desk and said something to them that I couldn't hear, but it caused the receptionist to stand and gather more people who were behind the desk. I looked back at the exit and saw a person coming in. As soon as the door was pushed open by the man, I got yanked outside, my arm skimming the door frame as we launched ourselves into the cold morning air. Once we were outside, Ethan took off running, and I had to slow him down. Stars scattered from his body and mine, falling to the ground where they disintegrated into sparkly dust. Once he was mostly visible, and I was completely visible, I managed to stop him.

“Ethan stop! Where are we going?” I asked, he was breathing heavily and looking around frantically, as if he had millions of things going on in his mind. I let go of his hand and placed a hand on his left shoulder, telling him to calm down. More stars dropped from his torso and onto the ground below as he took deep breaths and relaxed.

“Where are we? What is this place?” he asked, I gave him a weird look and tried to figure out what question he was really asking. He knew we were at hospital, so I didn’t think that was what he wanted to know.

“Umm.. LA.” I said, Ethan just looked more confused by my answer. 

“LA? Where is that?” he asked, I raised an eyebrow at him.

“In the states.” I replied, still confused as to what he was really asking. He began walking, leaving my grasp. 

“State of what?” he asked, I didn’t move at first, just stood there in confusion. 

“What so you mean? The United States of America, the state of Los Angeles.” I replied, making it more detailed. Ethan stopped walking then, and stood about 10 feet away from me, not moving, not saying anything. He took a shaky breath and then turned around slowly, looking at me with a tear forming in his eye.

“I messed up.” he repeated, over and over, shaking his head. I approached him and he just harried his face in his hands and took more shaky breaths. I didn’t know what to do or what to think, but that little voice inside my head that told me to help him was back, and it was telling me to help him again. So I patted his shoulder lightly and turned him around, moving over to the sidewalk so I could call an uber away from the hospital doors. 

“It’s ok. I'll get you back to my place and we will figure this out.” I said, he nodded, but didn’t say anything else. The uber showed up just as the sun began to rise, and Ethan didn't speak the rest of the drive, he just looked out the window, his mind going a mile a minute, as the last few stars fell off of his foot, and turned to sparkly dust against the floor of the car.


	4. Chapter 4, The Moon and Stars

## Chapter Four, The Moon

### (Mark's POV)

When we got to my house I thought maybe me and Ethan could talk. I thought he could start answering the thousands of questions I had. I thought he could tell me what he was doing here and where he came from. I thought maybe he could tell me the names of anyone he knew so I could make sure he got to his house safely. Any crumb, or speck of information he was willing to offer I was willing to obtain, but when we got out of the uber, and I opened my front door, Ethan went inside and say on the floor in the middle of my living room. I didn't know how to start a conversation with him, and 20 or so minutes went by and he was still sitting there, and I was still handing in my kitchen behind him, just staring at him.

Eventually, Ethan broke the silence.

“Mark Fischbach?” Ethan called for me, I cleared my throat and snapped out of my stunned daze.

“Yes?” I asked, hoping that this would be the opening I needed to start asking Ethan some of my questions that were beginning to burn a hole in my brain. 

“Your television box is different than mine.” Is what he told me. I felt annoyed with the response, but, at least we were talking. I walked over by him and sat on the couch, looking slightly down at him cross legged on the carpet.

“Yeah, well mine’s a few years old so that's probably why.” I explained, Ethan nodded slowly, eyes glued to the shut off TV. 

“Mine is small, and more long in the back than yours. It’s screen is a bit dirty and there are many cords hanging from it.” Ethan told me, I nodded and let him have a pause before I asked him anything else. 

“Wow, sounds like a really bad TV… where is your TV?” I asked him, hoping to get an address in response, or something close. 

“Inside.” he answered, an answer that meant nothing to me, but seemed to mean something to him. It was quiet again. 

“Where do you live?” I asked, Ethan didn’t answer me. He placed his hand on the ground beside him and pushed some buttons on the TV remote. It turned on, and his eyes widen, filling with the light of the screen. He watched a news show, they were talking about the public school system changes. He picked up the remote again, and pushed another button, changing the channel.

“Your television box is a little different then mine…” he spoke, I nodded and asked him again where he lived. He didn’t answer again, just continued to have his eyes glued on the TV. I took a breath and leaned on my knees. He flipped through more channels, getting progressively closer to the screen. I pulled out my phone, and went to Google. I remembered Ethan telling the nurse something about ‘Apollo’ when he first saw her, so I typed it into Google.

I had heard the word before, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I couldn't think very straight right now or if I was just that stupid, but I couldn't figure out what the word meant. Ethan stopped flipping through channels and had stopped on one right before I pushed the search button.

“The Moon. I think that's what you guys call it, from the Earth.” Ethan said. I looked up from my phone and saw him staring at the TV screen, it was tuned into NASA TV, some documentary about the international space station was on. 

“Sorry?” I asked, it sounded like he had said something before the sentence I heard, but I knew he didn’t. He continued without taking his eyes off of the TV.

“Where I live, you call it the Moon.” Ethan explained. I stopped. Apollo, that was the name of the moon landing programs from NASA. This boy who fell out of my neighbors tree and into my backyard was from the moon. He fell from the fucking moon. Trying to wrap my head around this was giving me a migraine. How was I supposed to get him back to the damn moon? Why hadn't he come from Brooklyn or something. Even Canada wouldn’t be that bad, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they bled stars up there. With all the commotion, I had forgotten it was morning, and when I looked at the time, I had 3 minutes before my bus showed up to take me to work. I launched off the couch and startled Ethan as I did so.

“Oh God I have to go to work. Listen, can you just stay here and watch TV or something today until I get home? I will be back as soon as I can.” I explained, Ethan looked at me confused, but didn’t move from his spot on the floor.

“I have to go to work, I can't miss a day. Just stay here and we will figure this out when I come back.” I explained, Ethan still was confused.

“Work? What's work?” he asked, I stood a step back and raised any eyebrow at him, even more confused then Ethan looked. I went to go say something when Chica came running into the room and towards Ethan. He jumped up and fell backwards as Chica approached him, rail wagging and tongue out. 

“What is this?!” he shouted, clearly scared. I went over to Chica and tried to calm her down. She was just excited there was someone new in the house and she wanted to give him love, but he looked terrified. 

“This is Chica.” I told Ethan, he seemed to calm down a bit. I let Chica move over to him slowly and lightly nudge his hand.

“Oh, I've never seen A Chica before…” He spoke, I let go of her and stood up, grabbing my coat and trying to get my wallet together.

“No, her names just Chica.” I told him, he nodded as if he got it but I wasn’t sure he did. 

“Uh. Hello Just Chica! Are you like Mark's Dinah?” he asked, I grabbed my wallet and asked him what he meant. He patted Chica's head and scratched behind her ears.

“Like Dinah, Alice's cat, Chica is like your cat.” he said, I didn’t have time to correct him so I just grabbed my keys and began to leave.

“Just stay here, I'll be back soon.” I spoke, Ethan waved to me and continued petting Chica. I closed the door, locked it and ran like hell to get to my bus. I just caught it at the last moment, the bus driver knew me by now so she kept the door open a bit longer so I could get in. I got off at my stop and then walked over to work. I made it in seconds before my shift began. When I sat down at my desk I began breathing hard, trying to catch my breath.

The day went on normally, Jack wasn't in today so I couldn't talk to him about Ethan and what had ensued at the hospital afterwards. I did my work, filed my papers, crossed my T's and dotted my I's, and then listened to Shane's nonsensical conspiracy theories in the break room. I was about to just brush him off as I always did and go back to my desk but one thing he started talking about caught my attention.

“There is a specific race of Aliens that apparently stem from humans or vise versa. I was watching this show-” I stopped him before he could continue by saying ‘wait wait!’ and waving my hands around. I cleared my throat and began to ask a question I never thought I'd ask someone.

“Have you ever heard anything about people who live on the moon?” I asked him, Shane gave me a very confused look, but then it turned into a deep thought. He placed his hand on his chin and made a hmm noise.

“So, I am a big believer in the fact that the moon landing wasn't told to us how it actually went. The government is covering up something for sure, and I think it has to do with the fact that they found something, on the moon.” he spoke, I had never paid attention to one of his conversations this long before. He sounded like he actually had some useful information that would help me with the situation I was in with Ethan. 

“So, you think the government is hiding something from us about what they found when they landed on the moon?” I asked, Shane nodded.

“Of course, I mean, they have lunar rovers apparently, but they capture film that looks sort of fake. And you really think we are the only life in this entire solar system?” Shane asked, I could tell he was getting off topic. I tried to put the conversation back into orbit.

“If there were people on the moon-” 

“There are.” Shane cut me off, I let out an annoyed sigh and continued.

“If there were, what do you think they would look like? Or act like?” I asked, Shane thought for a second and then shrugged to me.

“I am not sure. They can look like anything, and act like anything too. Outer space is just a lot of unknowns, and the moon is no different.” Shane explained. I sighed. I wished he had an answer to my questions, one that helped me understand what the hell was going on with Ethan. If he really was from the moon, I didn’t know where to start to get him back there, not to mention I didn’t even know how he got here, or why he was here. This whole situation was nothing but a huge headache that I knew would continue to plague me until I followed through with a solution and got Ethan back where he came from. I had almost wished that I was one of those people that could just kick him out on the street and let him figure it out by himself, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself it I did something like that. 

“What’s with the sudden interest in moon people? You rarely ever look interested when I talk to you about stuff like that.” Shane asked me, I was taken a bit off guard with this questions, and scanned my mind for some type of answer. I knew Ethan wanted to keep him being here a secret, so much so we broke out of the hospital. I didn’t think telling Shane about it would be a good idea anyways, he ran a blog about conspiracy theories and I knew Ethan would be right on the front page if I mentioned anything about him.

“Oh, yeah I was watching a documentary about the moon and stuff and it interested me so I thought I’d see what you thought, because I know you like this type of stuff.” I explained to him, he nodded and that concluded our conversation. He went back to his desk, and I grabbed a quick coffee and headed back to mine. I continued my day to day life at work, but many questions floated around my mind, making it extremely hard to focus. I needed to go home, sit down with Ethan and discuss what we were going to do to get him back home. He seemed to have some sort of powers, like the invisibility he used to get us out of the hospital, maybe he had a way to get back to the moon he was just hiding from me. 

I really didn’t know why I wanted to help him so bad, I guess I just had so much negativity in my life at the moment that if I could give positivity to someone else I would jump at the opportunity. 

I finished work an hour later then I was supposed to because I had been so distracted during the day I had missed some work I needed to get done for the next day. I packed up my things and headed for the bus. I swiped my card and got on board. The bus driver informed me I only had one more ride left on my card, so I thanked him and made a mental note to refill it tomorrow. As soon as I sat down, my phone began buzzing in my pocket. It was Jack. At first I hesitated, and contemplated not answering it, but I knew he just wanted to know what was going on with Ethan and the entire situation, and make sure I was ok. If Jack thought something bad happened to me, he would blow up my phone. He was a good friend. 

Beep “Hello?” I answered,

“Hey Mark, you ok?” Jack asked, I told him yeah and asked how he was, but he just cleared his throat.

“What happened with that guy?” he asked, getting right to it. I took a breath and began to explain. I wondered if he was going to think I was crazy after I told him what actually happened. 

“So, he is actually at my house now.” I explained, partially.

“Oh. Why? Did he not tell you where he lived? And, did they already let him out of the hospital?” Jack asked, I didn’t say anything at first, and the silence made Jack get worried, I could almost feel his concern through my cell phone.

“Mark? What’s going on?” he asked, I looked over to the other people on the bus, some of which were actually watching me on the phone with Jack right now. As much as I wanted to just explain what was going on, I had a feeling it was a lot more sensitive than I was lead on to believe by Ethan. The fact that he was so concerned about being at the hospital should have been enough of a sign for me to realize this was something bigger than myself. I swallowed hard and went back on the phone.

“Are you busy later tonight? Come over and I will explain everything.” I stated. Jack went to go say something, but stopped before a word formed. He paused, and then agreed.

“Ok. I’ll see you in about an hour then.” he spoke, and then hung up. 

The bus stopped at its normal stop, and I got off. I thanked the driver, as I always did, and began to walk the rest of the way to my house. Before I got to the door, my phone went off again, but this time it was Amy. It was a long text, something about a meeting for tomorrow before I had to go to work to discuss when the divorce would take place and court times. There was a piece about Chica in there too but I purposely didn’t read it because I didn’t feel like crying right now, there was too many other things going on in my life that I didn’t have time to be sad about possibly losing my dog on top of everything else. I approached my door and placed the key into the lock, turning it and then twisting the handle, pushing it open and walking inside.

Instantly, I saw a disaster. I had barely walked through my front hallway and I saw soap bubbles floating all over the tiles and walls, some drifting up the stairs, some scrubbing the walls. I cursed and walked further into my house, worried about what else I would see. 

“Ethan?” I called out, I didn’t get a response. I stepped into the kitchen and saw that the sink was running and the bubbles were coming out of there. I quickly shut it off, and then turned to the fridge. Almost all of my food was out and on the ground, my frozen dinners melting away and my produce just laying on the floor. 

“What the hell?” I asked allowed, I was so confused. It looked as though I had left a toddler home alone, but the only person here all day was Ethan. I began to worry that maybe someone broke into my house. Ethan might have been on the run from the government or something, what if someone had come in here looking for him. I heard a laugh from upstairs and jumped up. Before venturing off, I grabbed a wooden spoon I had laying on my counter, just in case things went sideways and someone really was in my house. I slowly began making my way to the staircase. I quietly climbed up the stairs, spoon in hand, ready to attack anyone that posed a threat to me - or took all my food out of my fridge and nearly flooded my house - I continued up the stairs and towards the room with noise. 

It was my bedroom, I heard the sound of feed stomping, and laughing, and Chica barking happily. I was still cautious when opening the door, but, I felt let concerned. I didn’t think government agents were raiding my house any longer, but I still didn’t know what was going on. I turned the door knob and stepped into the room, spoon in the air. The laughing stopped and I looked on in confusion.  
Ethan was kneeling in front of my wall with a box of pens scattered all over the floor, holding a blue on in his hand, drawing on the wall with it. Chica was beside him, wagging her tail happily, both of them were covered in what seemed to be baking flour and sprinkles from my pantry, along with what I assumed was honey in Ethan’s hair, making the ends stick together. 

“What…?” was all I could say, I began waving my arms around in utter confusion. Ethan gasped and dropped the pen on the ground. 

“It was Just Chica’s idea I swear! She got bored of the television box and then found these pretty drawing sticks and also she found the cold box you had with all of these weird colourful shapes inside… it was all Just Chica’s idea!” Ethan shouted in defense. I rolled my eyes at him and lowered my arm, dropping the spoon and running my hands through my hair. I guessed, not living on Earth, would cause a person to be uneducated and not know what things are, but this was crazy. I didn’t want to get mad, this didn’t seem like something that he would have known not to do, I had to remember I was dealing with someone from another planet altogether, and even if he was lying, then I was dealing with a lunatic who probably didn’t know this was wrong to do either. 

“Let’s… Let’s just get you cleaned up.” I said, Ethan stood up and walked over to me, raising an eyebrow. 

“Cleaned up?” He asked, I looked at him even more confused than he was looking at me now.

“Yeah, you’re covered in flour and honey, you need to shower, I’ll wash your clothes for you too, you can borrow some of mind in the meantime.” I explained, Ethan was still lost. 

“Shower?” he asked, I felt a bit sick at that statement. Had Ethan never showered before? I gave him the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe he just didn’t know if by that term. I ushered him into my bathroom and then showed him the bathtub and shower head.

“Shower, you know, like cleaning yourself, with soap and water.” I went into a bit of detail, Ethan nodded a bit but still looked confused.

“Oh, cleaning yourself. Yes, I have done this before, but I don’t know what soap is. Water I have seen on my television box, but I have never seen it in real life...” Ethan explained. Everything that came out of his mouth confused me more and more. 

“I clean with the stars, I gather a few and they refresh me, and I get all sparkly. But, I don’t know if they can get this yellow Bee Syrup out of my hair…” Ethan admitted. I laughed a him a bit. He really was new to say the least. I started the shower for him, letting the water run from the head, coating the tiled floor. He looked on at it in awe, as if it was the most incredible thing he had ever seen in his life. He reached out to the water, and placed his hand underneath the fall, the water ran down his arm and he shivered at the sense. 

“Have you never touched water before?” I asked, Ethan shook his head and continued to feel the drips.

“No. There is none on the moon. I understand it is used to sustain life for people here, it’s why the Earth is so blue in colour when I look at it… Or, used to look at it from Outside.” he explained. If Ethan had never actually felt or drank water before, it was sure proof he wasn’t from here, and wasn’t human. A person can die of dehydration within 2 days, and the way he was reacting to the water coming out of the shower head was a sign that he was really interacting with water for the first time. 

“So you don’t need to drink anything then?” I asked him, he shook his head again and continued to let the water fall down his arm, getting the sleeves of his T-shirt wet. 

“No. I know what food and drinks are, from the television box, Alice drinks something that makes her shrink and she eats cake that makes her grow, if it wasn’t for the realism in My Girl, I would have thought that that's actually how food and drinks worked. It took me a while to really understand the difference between fiction and nonfiction within the things I watched my television box, but I had a very big boring book I eventually read a few things in, and fiction vs. nonfiction was one of those things.” Ethan explained to me, he didn’t make any eye contact the whole time, just focused on the water. I didn’t really know how to react to his statements. 

“Umm, here, we will talk after your shower, don’t want to waste anymore water, can’t have my water bill going up anymore.” I laughed, Ethan nodded and then started towards the water, I stopped him before he walked in and got his clothes soaked.

“Hey! Wait a second, I said I could wash your clothes, I didn’t mean in the shower.” I laughed at his unknowingness. He gave me a confused look, and then understood what I was trying to say after a few moments. 

“Oh, ok that makes more sense.” he nodded. He started to remove his shirt right then and there and I waved my arms around.

“Wait until I leave!” I shouted, he did stop what he was doing, but then looked at me very nervously.

“But I don’t want to drown, or slip and fall… Can you just stay in the room?” he asked, I thought it was a weird request, but then I remember who I was speaking to. Ethan, the boy from the moon, who hadn’t touched water in his whole life until 2 minutes ago. I nodded and then turned to face the wall away from him.

“Yeah, just go in there and close the curtain and I will hang out here incase something happens.” I said, Ethan accepted this and then I heard him shuffling around. I heard the shower curtain close. I took a seat on the counter in the bathroom. It was like a small cube, there was barely enough room for 2 people in here. I never had someone else stay the night who would need to use the shower, so, I didn’t need anything bigger than this. 

“There is shampoo in there, put some on your hand and scrub your hair with it, and then the soap is on the bottom rack.” I explained, Ethan thanked me and I heard a bottle cap open, and a weak scent of my Old Spice shampoo lightly floated through out the lightly steamy air.

“I can’t leave you at home again tomorrow, so you are going to have to come with me to my divorce meeting and also work. You can wait in the cafe at my work, I will come check on you.” I spoke to Ethan over the sound of the shower. Ethan made a noise as if he didn’t understand, I kept forgetting that I had to be very clear and detailed with him.

“You made a bit of a mess, your just going to hang out with me tomorrow.” I said, I heard the water shift so I thought he might have nodded, but I couldn’t see through the curtain. 

“What is a Divorce? I don’t think I know that word.” Ethan asked me, I took a deep breath and then debated whether or not I should explain it. I figured, if he was going to be with me at the meeting tomorrow, I should at least give him the rundown. 

“Well, I was married to a girl named Amy, but she decided she didn’t love me anymore and now we are in the processes of getting unmarried.” I told him, trying to make it more simple, hoping he knew what marriage was.

“Why doesn’t she love you anymore?” Ethan asked me, I didn’t really know how to answer him. I took a deep breath, and then went replied.

“I am not even sure if she loved me in the first place. She loves money, and I don’t have much of that, so she found someone with more.” I explained, Ethan was quiet for a moment, I wondered if I explained it well enough.

“Do you think anyone will ever love me? Because I have no money.” he broke the silence. This statement was odd, but, all of my interactions from this Moon Boy had been Odd. I cleared my throat and replied.

“Love shouldn’t be measured by money, so, yeah, someone will love you one day, if that's what you want.” I told him. He didn’t say anything after that, and neither did I. The shower turned off moments later, and then Ethan peeked his head out of the curtain, his hair cleaned now, but it still seemed sparkly and dotted with stardust. 

“Here, I can get you a towel, and I’ll grab you some of my clothes.” I explained, Ethan nodded and then let the curtain fall back in the spot where it hung, and he waited. I went out of the bathroom, collecting his sprinkle, flour and pen covered clothes and placed them in my laundry basket. I would have to give Chica a bath, but I was going to do that later. I grabbed a grey hoodie of mine and some black sweatpants that were a bit too small for me and a towel, and brought it back over to Ethan. 

“Here, these should somewhat fit you. Dry off and change, I’m going to go put your clothes in the laundry I’ll be right back.” I said, before I walked out, Ethan called for me, and I stopped, seeing him look out the curtain again.

“Just, thanks for everything, you have no idea how much I appreciate this all. Sorry I made a mess.” he apologized, he looked truly sorry about it. I shook my head to him, and waved my hands a bit in defense. 

“Oh, absolutely no worries! I am happy to help, and, I will get you back home as soon as I figure out how to!” I said, this made him smile, and he thanked me again. I took my laundry basket to my laundry room, dumped the clothing into the washer, and placed Ethan’s clothes on top of everything. They felt soft, and new, even though they had been through a lot the past few days, and when I rubbed on one of the stains, sparkles came off and stuck to my hand, one that were shinier and brighter than anything you could get at a craft store.

Almost like stars.


	5. Chapter Five, Warm

## Chapter Five, Warm

### (Ethan’s POV)

“You’re crazy.” I heard Mark’s friend say from the kitchen. His name was Jack, I think he thought that if he was in another room, I couldn’t hear him, but this wasn’t true. I could hear him clearly, and I could hear Mark all the same.

“I’m not crazy, he is from the moon. Surprisingly, that is the most believable thing I have experienced with this guy.” Mark replied, Jack turned around and ran his hands through his brown hair, as if he was frustrated. 

“You and him are both crazy.” Jack stated, his voice was louder this time.

“Listen, this isn’t the conversation I wanted to have anyways! I need your help, I need to get him back to the moon.” Mark explained, this made Jack turn back around and wave his arms in the air.

“Are you insane?! You have enough on your plate, you shouldn’t have taken this child under your care! You have other things to worry about!” Jack shouted to Mark, this is when I interjected.

“Sorry, I’m actually 22. So, I think a child has to be 18 years old or younger, so I am a new adult, not a child.” I said it in a way to just provide some clarification and facts, but when I heard my own tone I could tell it sounded a bit angry. I hoped Jack didn’t take it the wrong way because he already seemed mad. He crossed his arms and turned to Mark, almost refusing to look at me.

“22 what? Lightyears?! Mark, this is all a bad idea!” Jack stated. I didn’t know why he was so mad, Mark was just trying to help me, and I wanted to say this but I was already bad at reading emotions so I didn’t know if I should really butt into the conversation they were having anymore then I already did.

“Listen, I already decided I wanted to help him, I am just telling you this because your my best friend and I wanted to get your help. I’m not asking for your opinion.” Mark told him, Jack huffed and shifted his stance. 

“Mark, I am your only friend.” Jack replied, he said it in a calmer voice but the tone made the words sting more than his loud statements. Mark didn’t reply to this one, just began to look at the ground. Jack took a breath and closed his eyes, rubbing his shoulders.

“Listen, this is just crazy, and you are stressed enough already. I worry about your mental health. There is a lot of stuff going on in your life right now, between Amy, work and money… You have a lot on your plate and I don’t think that taking care of another human being would be a good idea.” Jack spoke. His tone was different again, it seemed to change with every sentence. Mark didn’t say anything, he just looked off to the wall, his arms slowly crossing and resting on his chest. Just Chica came running over now, and she stopped beside me, sticking her tongue out. I pet her head, her fur was still a bit damp as Mark has put her in the water shower as well. So me and Just Chica were twins with our damp hair. 

“Can you help me or not?” Mark asked, Jack pinched the bridge of his nose and didn’t say anything again. This seemed to be a trend, Mark would say something, Jack would show he was visibly frustrated. Then Jack would say something and Mark would almost mirror the frustration. I know that Mark had told me his friend Jack was coming over, but they didn’t really seem like friends, not how I understood friends to be anyways. 

“I don’t know.” he spoke. Mark groaned loudly and they stood in silence once again. Jack pulled out his cellular phone after a few moments and glanced at the screen. I had seen Mark do this to his cellular phone as well, I didn’t understand what they could be looking at, it doesn’t take that long to see who called you.

“I got to go, it’s late and we have work tomorrow. If you need anything I will help you, I just think this is stupid, and I think you have to realize that this thing is not your responsibility.” Jack spoke. He left after that, Mark saying goodbye and shutting the door behind him. Although a thing was grouped with person and place within the noun category, it wasn’t what I was. A thing was, in literal terms, an object that one need not, cannot, or does not wish to give a specific name to. I had a name, it was Ethan, and I was a person, not a thing. Regardless of where I came from, who took care of me, or anything, I was a person at the end of the day, not a thing. This statement really did leave a sour taste in my mouth.

“Why does Jack not like me?” I asked Mark once he was back in the living room area. Chica went over to him once he sat down on the floor across from me.

“Oh, it’s not that he doesn’t like you, it’s just he is worried about me, because a lot is going on in my life and he doesn’t want me to deal with more things.” Mark explained, this wasn’t the vibe I got from the conversation, but I wasn’t very good at reading people due to the fact that I had never spoken to another person until the other day when Mark took my to the hospital and I realized what a horrible mistake touching that box was. 

“C’mon, we need to go to sleep, we have a busy day tomorrow.” Mark told me, I agreed and follow him as he went upstairs. He ushered me over to his bedroom, the one that I had used the ‘pen’ on the walls in. I thought mine and just Chica’s art was very good, but Mark told me he would have to take it off, just in case his Land Owner came in and saw it. I wondered if Mark’s Land Owner was like Jack, someone who wouldn’t like me because they wanted what was best for Mark and thought that I wasn’t the best for him. All of this was new. 

“You can sleep in my bed, I will be right downstairs. Don’t touch anything but the blankets and things, if you need anything just call for me, I should answer. If not, then come down and get me, I will be on the couch in the living room.” Mark explained. I nodded, pretending that I knew everything he said but, just like the other sentences he had said to me before, there were parts I was unsure of. I went over to the bed and pulled the covers down a bit, lying on my side and pulling the covers up to just under my chin. My head rested on the soft pillow, it was much more comfortable than my bed back Inside. I closed my eyes for a second, and then looked at Mark as he walked out of the room. He shut off the light and the room went dim, the only thing illuminating my surroundings was a small little light tucked into the corner of the room, it seemed to be floating a few centimeters off of the ground. He began to leave, and then words flew out of my mouth, I was as surprised as he was by what I said.

“Can you sleep here with me?” is what came out of my mouth. Mark stopped, his foot almost leaving the room. He turned around to me and asked me what I said. I repeated it, and he slowly turned back.

"I just… It's very weird being outside of my normal routine and places, and I'm scared… I guess." I tried to explain myself. It was a weird request, I knew that now, but when Mark was near me I didn't feel as panicked as I did when he left me alone. I was fine being by myself back Inside and Outside, but this was an entirely new place and I only knew little of how anything actually worked here. Mark had been filling in the unknown gaps for me, it only made sense I felt more in tune with my surroundings, and in return more comfortable with him. He thought in silence, and then nodded and walked back over to me. I pushed to the edge of the bed so to give him extra room.

"Ok. If it makes you more comfortable." He spoke as he climbed into bed next to me, he slept with his back towards me, on his side, one arm under his pillow. I turned to face the wall opposite him, my back towards his. I slept with my legs tucked up, knees to my stomach, arms wrapped around them. I was cold for a before, but now I began to warm up. It was probably just my body heat, or the fact I started to drift off, but in my mind I thought it was because I knew that Mark was beside me. To protect me. To help me, and keep me warm.

***

The light of the morning burst through the thin curtains of Mark's bedroom and found its way onto my eyelids. This caused me to shift, but not fully awaken from my sleep. This was something new for me. Of course I had seen the Sun before, but not from a planet like Earth. I believed the difference in visuals had to do with the atmosphere, but I wasn't quite sure. I only knew some things, I would never consider myself very smart. 

“Hey, wake up we have to go.” Mark told me, I opened my eyes and saw him already dressed and ready to go. I sat up in the bed, rubbing my eyes and trying to focus on my surroundings. Mark threw something at me and it landed in my lap. When I looked at it, it was my clothing. My shirt with the space logo on it that was also Inside a lot, and my matching pants. They felt warm and fluffy, Mark said he was washing them, they felt brand new.

“Get changed and then meet me by the door downstairs, sound like a plan?” He asked as if I could answer no, but I knew he was just telling me what was going to happen and was more so asking for a clarification that I understood him. I nodded and he smiled, leaving the room and going into the hallway, making his way down the stairs. I grabbed the clothes and changed out of the ones he lent me. My clothes smelt good, fresh, just as they felt, brand new. I hugged the t shirt for a bit, letting the soft fabric brush against me. It didn’t even feel like my old clothes, Mark had made them better. I walked over to the door but stopped in front of something. It showed a version of myself in it, but I was flipped vertically. I thought it was called a mirror, a piece of aluminum that was bordered by wood, sometimes metal. It showed you how you looked, and how other people would see you.

I never thought of this, but, in my years of living Inside I never actually saw myself. Sometimes I would catch a fading glimpse of my face in the windows and my TV box, but my eyesight wasn’t the best and thus I didn’t really know how I looked. Now, I could see myself so clearly. 

My hair was brown, and fluffy. It was a bit tangled from sleeping and rubbing my head against the pillow in my dreams. My skin was a light colour, and present on my face were these little red dots every so often. These I think I had noticed before, they were actually small stars embedded in my face that had like the spot so much they wanted to stay for weeks on end. They would leave every so often and go into different spots, but they always seemed to be present in my complexion. I was smaller built, smaller than Mark and Jack anyways, and I was thin. I looked right into my own eyes, and my vision stayed there for a while.

My eyes were big, and the more I looked into them, the hazel colour that coated my iris was spotted with small white dots that floated through out my eye. They sparkled. They were stars as well. Mark, as far as I knew, didn’t have these. They were only visible when you looked closely into my eyes however, so it was a possibility that I just didn’t notice he had the sparkles, but there were things that I had, things that were different from Mark and the other people I met here. Things that hammered home the fact that I did not belong here, and I was not from here. Things that isolated me, and the sparkles in my eyes, and the stars in cased in my skin were only a few I had noticed this past few days. Mark had asked me to hurry so I didn’t spend anymore time looking at myself. 

I hurried down the stairs and met up with Mark at the door. He was holding too many and dropped keys onto the ground. I picked them up for him and smiled, he thanked me and then opened up the door, taking the keys from me when we were both outside of his house. The air felt different in Earth’s Outside. So many new and different things were coming at me from all directions, it was easy for a person to get distracted. 

“Ethan?” Mark called for me, I turned towards him and noticed he was already a bit aways from me. I apologized and sprinted to catch up to him. He laughed and said it was ok, and then we continued to walk. We were walking on a grey path, and then to my right was a darker grey path that was bigger than the one me and Mark were following, but there were cars on it. I believed it was called a road, and then the one we were following was called a sidewalk. All things I didn’t have Inside or Outside, all things I had only seen on my television box. I realized, being here, there were a lot of things I had only seen, and not experienced. I knew Mark would help me get home, and that’s where I was supposed to be. However, I felt as though where I was supposed to be and where I wanted to be were two different things.

Mark lead me over to a post, it had a sign on it that said Bus 107, then below it had a lot of different numbers on it that I didn’t understand. Soon, a big vehicle came rolling up beside the post and stopped, two long doors opening to allow access to 2 small steps that lead inside of the vehicle, this must have been a ‘Bus’ it was like a long car with a lot more seats. The doors opened and me and Mark walked in. He gave the driver a ticket and then some coins, explaining that the coins were to cover my fair. The driver nodded and handed me a slip of paper with more numbers printed on it, almost like the ones on the bus sign. Mark and I headed to two seats near the back of the bus and sat down. We started moving and this is when Mark cleared his throat and that was my queue to listen.

"Now, when we get to my work I'm going to tell them that you're a new intern, and you're going to be shadowing my job for a few weeks. My manager is never in, he is always out playing golf, so we don't have to worry about people seeing through our lies, we just have to stick to it." Mark explained, more words I didn't quite grasp, but from context I could piece together what most of them meant.

"So, I am going to work with you and just watching what you do because I'm going to do that job in the future? Is that the lie?" I asked, trying to make sure I understood most of it. Mark nodded happily and nudged my shoulder.

"Yes! That's exactly it!" He said, his voice cheerful knowing that I got what he was saying. I was going to make sure that I didn't mess this up for Mark. Eventually the bus stopped and Mark stood up, letting me walk in front of me as we exited the bus. We were on another sidewalk, and I followed Mark closely as to not get lost, there were more people on this sidewalk than the other one. Mark kept me close anyways as he began to give me more instructions.

"Now, as for the divorce meeting, there is a waiting room just outside of the actual office I will be in and if you could stay there, take a seat and be completely silent that would be amazing." Mark instructed, I nodded even though I was only half listening at that moment, I was looking out the window of the bus, it wasn't as clear as the ones at Mark's house but I could still see out of it. There were so many people, so many things, and places I had never seen before passing by in the blink of an eye. Soon we came to a slow stop, and Mark stood up, gesturing for me to follow him once again.

He thanked the person who was driving and then lead me back onto a new sidewalk, and we walked again. There were lots of people around us, I was worried I would get lost. Instinctively, I grabbed onto Mark'd hand, not wanting to lose him in the crowd. He held it back, asking if I was ok, I replied by just explaining why I was holding on. We made it through all of the people, and came to some stairs, and big dark brown doors. Mark took a breather, and then we walked inside the doors. We ended up going down a few hallways until we came to one door which read "Miss. Grace Donenwirth, divorce attorney." In black font. Mark opened the door and we were brought to a bigger room, it had some comfy looking chairs and a few books, there was quiet, instrumental music playing all around us, so quiet I could hear the soles of my shoes clinging to the grey carpet underneath me. Mark pointed to the chairs and looked at me.

"Ok, just sit here and I will be right out, it shouldn't take too long." He explained, I nodded about to go and sit when suddenly another door opposite to the one we came in from opened. An older woman was holding it open as another woman stood beside her, this one looked around Mark's age, maybe a bit younger, with shoulder length, slightly wavy blonde hair. She looked pretty, I assumed this was the girl Mark was talking to me about. The older women gave Mark a stern look. 

"Mr. Fischbach, you're late." She spat, Mark groaned.

"I know, I know! I was caught up in a lot of stuff the past few days and-" Mark paused, as in his fit of explanations, he was moving his arms around and he had in return, moved mine as our hands were still linked. He looked at the hands and then at the two women. He quickly let go of my hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Uh wow Mark, who is this?" The blonde girl asked, Mark went to go answer but I feared the conversation would just end up as it did with Jack if I didn't speak for myself, so I spoke first.

"Oh hi! My name is Ethan, I assume you're the woman who doesn't love Mark anymore because of his money." I introduced myself, reaching out a hand for her to shake. She didn't shake my hand, which I thought was weird as every time someone met someone for the first time, they were supposed to shake hands. Mark cursed under his breath and pointed to the comfy chairs.

"Just go sit down I will be done soon." Mark directed me. I didn't say anything after that, I knew Mark was not happy with something by the tone of his voice changing, and I didn't want to make him more upset so I just agreed and went to sit down. I sat with my hands under my legs, as Mark walked off into the room with the other two. Silence danced around the office, sounds of manufactured air surrounded the room, and faint yelling from behind the door the three went into. When Mark came out, he was sad, and the other two were not. It wasn’t joy that was in their eyes either though, no, it was something cynical, something vial. I wondered why Mark would come here, if he left so worn down. I didn’t ask him, and we just continued out the door and onto the bus, to our next stop. 

And even when he was mad, or sad, or an emotion that was supposed to be considered cold, being beside Mark on the bus, in the room, on the sidewalk, anywhere we went, I felt warm. I felt safe. I felt more at home then I ever had on the Moon. I felt more at home then I ever had in my entire life. 

It was worrying.


	6. Chapter Six, Video Games

## Chapter Six, Video Games

### (Mark’s POV)

“Oh and what’s this?”  
“A computer”  
“Wowie! And this?”  
“A stapler”  
“Cool! And this?”  
“Files.”  
“That’s so amazing, Mark you have a really cool work.” 

Everything seemed to fascinate this guy. I would have thought that living on the moon, he would have access to better technology, and more knowledge then we did here on Earth, but it seemed like he was so sheltered from everything modern that he knew what he was exposed to up there, and that was that. I never had someone so interested in things like piles of paper and my black rusty stapler. I continued to work as he sat beside me at my desk, touching all of my stationary. I was trying to get some work done, but I knew not much would get completed today. As I mentioned to Ethan before, my boss was out on some business venture or something, and the person taking his place while he was away was never here, so it wouldn’t matter if I was caught doing nothing. I would just have to get enough done as to not look suspicious. 

“Mark, do you come here every day?” Ethan asked, breaking the bit of silence we had. I nodded to him and continued typing, taking information and trends from one file and placing them into another. 

“Does Jack come here too?” he asked, I nodded again and then pointed to the empty desk beside me.

“He sits here, or is supposed to, I don’t know where he is today.” I explained, Ethan nodded and continued to play with various paper clips he had found lying around my desk. He flicked one into the wall in front of me and it bounced off the water cooler. Ethan saw the cooler and pulled at my sleeve.

“Can I go see that?” he asked, I gave him a confused look again, I think the emotion Ethan saw the most from me was confusion. I shrugged and told him sure, but told him to be careful with the knobs, as water could come out and spill all over the floor. I explained a bit of how the paper cups worked but he was already not listening and examining the water cooler. I shook my head at him and laughed to myself, continuing to work. Suddenly, someone walked in front of my desk. I looked up and saw Shane there, looking as if he was awake all night. 

“I thought about what you were saying about the people from the moon.” he said, I raised my eyebrow at him

“Were you thinking about it all night or something?” I asked, he didn’t answer so I began to get concerned that he really did stay up all night looking for information. He placed his hands on my desk and began to explain his findings.

“So, I found some stuff on a website that took me hours to find which detailed NASA placing weird pods on the moon, and receiving regular communications from those pods to satellites and then back to their computers here on Earth. Now, probably 20 or so years ago most of those pods were removed, and one remained. NASA has said that this pod is just to collect information from rovers, but, satellite photos were leaked of the one left and it had windows, an easily accessible doors, none of which are needed to collect data. It’s almost like a little house.” Shane explained, while he continued explaining this, I was only half listening, because behind him I saw Ethan, pushing down the water cooler handle, and as the water poured out, he was turning it into little balls of water and causing them to float upwards, sparkling as if they were covered in stars. They hit the ceiling and turned into clouds of sparkles, and Ethan laughed at each of them. 

“It’s weird, but I think they had someone or something living in those pods and were trying to cover it up with this whole collecting data nonsense. I have a friend who might be able to get more information but it's a bit harder to speak with him these days, he is very secretive.” Shane continued, but now almost all of my attention was on Ethan as instead of just making the water float, he was floating with it, his back on the ceiling as he popped the bubbles and laughed when the water splashed him. 

“I could get in touch with him though, did you have anymore information or was it just the moon documentary you were watching?” Shane asked me, and I didn’t answer. Just kept on looking at the floating boy above us. Shane called my name but I still didn’t answer, it looked like stars were coming in from outside and attaching themselves onto him, and this is what was making him float. Shane then looked at my eyes and must have noticed I was no longer looking at him. He turned around slowly and spotted Ethan on the ceiling with his water bubbles. Ethan stopped when he noticed that we were both looking at him. He fell from the ceiling and sat on the ground, the remaining water bubbles splashing beside him. He laughed and waved to Shane.

“Uh, hello.” he said. Shane didn’t speak, turned back to me and opened his mouth as if he was going to talk, but no words came out. Ethan looked at me and scratched an invisible itch on his arm.

“Sorry…” He apologized. I just exhaled and looked at Shane, he still didn’t say anything, he sort of looked like he went crazy for a second and then finally said something.

“What?” is all he said, and when he said it, he stretched the word out. I stood up from my desk, walked over to Ethan, collected him from the ground and then grabbed Shane, leading them all off into the printer room, I made sure no one was in there, and then I closed the door behind us.

“The moon child.” Shane spoke, while pointing at Ethan, it seemed as he couldn’t form complete sentences, just half ones. Ethan slumped a bit, his hands in his pants pockets, he shrugged.

“Yeah?” Ethan answered, as if Shane was calling his name. Shane just stared at him, and I could tell Ethan didn’t really know what to do. I bumped Shane’s shoulder and pointed to Ethan, who was trying to dissipate the amount of stars that had formed around him because of the water thing he was doing. 

“Yes, ok, so I brought up moon people before because maybe I found one? And maybe I need help getting him back to where he lives, and maybe I am not nerdy enough to figure all the stuff out that you seemed to have figured out.” I explained, Shane cleared his throat and then pointed to me.

“First of all, I am not a nerd you’re being mean, second,” he paused and looked at Ethan, “You’re from the moon?! Really?!” he asked, Ethan just nodded slowly. Shane laughed a bit and then sat down in front of Ethan, pulling a notepad out on his phone and grinning widely.

“No way! Tell me everything! Where did you live on there? How do you fly? What did you eat? How did you breath?” Shane went on and on and Ethan tried his best to answer him. I found out little bits of new information, like how he never felt hungry or thirsty and didn’t need those things to survive, how he learned to read and write from a man on his TV who taught him basic things up until he was 10, how he had been told his entire life he was on the Moon to protect the Earth and had saved us from a meteor before. Everything else he told Shane I already knew, or knew most of. Shane was then asking him a lot questions about aliens, and this is when my attention turned elsewhere. 

I was looking out the door for a while, there was a small window in the middle of it, above the door knob. I saw someone walk by, and then stop and come back, peering into the room. I focused on them, and saw who it was. Jack. I got up and walked over to the door, but as soon as he noticed I saw him, he started to walk away.

“Jack! Wait up!” I called out, he stopped walking and his hands balled into fists, he seemed to growl and then turn around, staring at me with an awful glare. 

“What is wrong with you?” He shouted the words, which made me stop running towards him. 

“What?” before I could even say anything else he was shouting again. 

“You brought him to work like he’s some sort of show and tell pet?! Let him go Mark he’s not your responsibility!” I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know why he was so mad but it was really ticking me off. Jack had been my only friend for so long, I didn’t know where this toxic attitude was coming from. Ethan didn’t do anything to Jack, nor did I, maybe he was grumpy I asked him for a ride to the hospital but that was old news at this point. I wanted to tell him everything I just thought, ask him why he was being so mean, just figure this out, but I didn’t. I wasn’t sure if it was just because I didn’t have time or I didn’t want to put in the effort to work on a relationship with someone who wasn’t going to meet me halfway.

“I don’t care, Ethan asked me for help, so I am helping him because I’m a good person. I don’t need you telling me I’m wrong for doing this every time I try to talk to you.” I said, it was close to what I wanted to say, but it wasn’t getting my point across. It was almost hostile in the sense that I wasn’t asking questions to repair the friendship, I was telling him what I was doing regardless of his advice. Jack didn’t reply, he just turned around swiftly and walked away, down the hall and to the other end of the office. I understood him and I didn’t at the same time. I got that he wanted me to focus on myself and not other, but I didn’t understand why he was so upset that I was trying to help someone who was literally from outer space. I didn’t dwell on it anymore, and I felt like my efforts to try and patch up our relationship were going to degrade drastically the more I helped Ethan, and I was okay with that. Ethan was more important to me than someone who didn’t even want to accept my own choices.

I returned to the printer room and Shane was still questioning Ethan, but paused when I opened the door.

“Mark, I may know someone who can help us with this, like I said, but they are a bit hard to get in contact with and it might take me awhile. Either way, I will try and I’ll let you know. We’ll all have a meeting ASAP and see how we can get Ethan back to the moon.” Shane explained. When Shane said this, I nodded and thanked him, but Ethan looked kind of disappointed. I could see the expression on his face, it was sorrowful in a way, but he quickly masked it with gratitude and thanked Shane for his help. Shane walked out of the room, and left me there with Ethan. Ethan stood up, and walked beside me, a smile on his face, he bumped my arm with his fist and grinned.

“Hey, so you do have friends who like me then?” he laughed, I laughed back and shrugged.

“Shane’s a conspiracy theory nerd so of course he would like you.” I replied. We left it at that and went back to my desk, finishing up the days work. 

***

We got off of the bus at the stop by my house and walked through the city streets to get to my street. Ethan and I walked and shared small talk about the work day, mostly just me answering questions about stationary again and computers. While I was talking about the wonders of Microsoft Excel, I noticed that Ethan had stopped walking beside me. I panicked a little, but soon located him with his face pressed against the window of a store. I back tracked and saw him in awe at the tv’s which displayed video game trailers and game play. 

“What is this?” Ethan asked, his voice almost muffled because of how close he had this face to the window. I laughed and pointed to the store sign, not that he noticed. 

“It’s a gamestop. They sell video games.” I explained, still with his eyes glued on the screens, he replied.

“Video what?” he asked, I laughed and pushed him gently away from the window, continuing to walk him back to my house.

“C’mon,” I called for him to follow, he smiled and took my hand again, and we rushed to my house. When we got back, I started up my Switch first, showing Ethan the Joycon and explaining the control scheme for Mario Kart. Ethan took in all of the information as if I was telling him the most impressive, interesting and exciting thing ever. I would never imagine impressing a person who could control stars and breath in space. 

“So, we get to race in karts? On the screen? I control the TV box person?” he asked, I nodded, I started up the game and the opening screen already caught his attention, his eyes seemed to sparkle in the light of the game, when the cars on the screen turned and flashed vivid colours, they reflected on the hazel hues of his eyes. It looked as if I was looking into the starry sky itself, the one Ethan must have surrounded himself with everyday before he fell here. It was beautiful how much he lit up with joy by the simple things in life. 

“Let’s go!” I called out, starting up the character select screen. Ethan looked around at the characters and selected Yoshi, his explanation being he looked his colour. He picked a random kart combination as he had no idea what he was doing and then I was going through the courses. He made me spot on the crown cup, and we began the race. 

As new as Ethan was to the world of Mario Kart, he picked up the controls quickly. After only one track, he was passing me and moving into first place. I could have passed him, and sped by over the finish line, but then I looked at his face. The biggest smile was spread across it and his eyes were so wide and full of joy that I didn’t want to pass him. I let him beat me, and once the text appeared on the screen that said Finish and the 1st place stamp was placed beside his player icon, he turned to me and jumped up from his spot on the carpeted floor.

“I won!” he cheered, I cheered with him and she just kept smiling and smiling. We continued the races, a frantic adventure filled with turtle shells and banana peels alike, soon taking us to the final race course of this cup. Rainbow road. When the level came into view, he stopped and looked at it. The starry sky present in the game seemed to strike something in his mind. I thought the background would make him think of his home, and in return make him happy, but he looked rather sad.

“Does it really look like this out there?” I asked, Ethan examined the background and bit longer and shrugged.

“Yeah actually, they pretty much nailed it. But, Earth looks a lot prettier from the Moon in real life.” he answered, the race started before I could say anything else and although Ethan was still doing really well, I could tell her was distracted by something. We finished the race and I did let him win again, his somewhat somber mood went away and he smiled wide at his victory, looking at me and bouncing in his spot on the carpet.

“I won! I won!” he cheered, happiness filling his face again, I held up a hand and congratulated him, wanting him to give me a high five. When he looked confused, I held his wrist and high fived myself with his hand. He laughed at my gesture and I continued the game. We played Mario Kart a bit longer, then Splatoon, soon we switched systems and played my PS4, starting with Burnout Paradise, and moving to Call of Duty and then Little Big Planet. 

“There are so many of these Video things that have to do with space.” Ethan said as he used the PS4 remote to move around the Little Big Planet character he created, he gave himself a Panda hat, not because he knew a lot about Pandas but because he liked the colours. I nodded to him and moved my character behind his, mine was very plain, as I didn’t play this game too much. I was thinking of selling most of these because I needed money. 

“Yeah, there are very few people from Earth that can go to space. So, we’re all very curious about it.” I stated, Ethan yawned and laid down beside me, lazily controler the player. 

“It’s really not that amazing, it’s actually very lonely…” Ethan began, he leaned against my shoulder I closed his eyes, stopping the movement of his character slowly. 

“I like it on Earth a lot better,” he began, another yawn came from his mouth, “I like it here with you a lot better.”

He fell asleep on my shoulder like that, and I was left with my own thoughts, and my heart pounding in my chest.


End file.
